A little more about me

In my first entry, I talked a little about my background and the 2 departments I currently belong to. In this edition, I'm going to talk about my career department, my next article will cover my volunteer department.

As I stated before, I am a Captain for Dunbar Fire Department in Dunbar,WV. Our dept. is a little unique in the fact that we only staff 4 firefighters per shift. We operate out of 2 stations, with an Asst. Chief (shift commander) and a firefighter out of Central Station, a Captain and a firefighter out of Station 2. We also have a Chief and Deputy Chief that operate out of Central Station Mon-Fri 8a-4p.

Our Dept. is also unique in the fact that half of the 14 members have 6 years experience or less. This leaves very little room to hide and makes you grow up as a firefighter very fast. When I was hired, there were only 3 people with less than 9 years of service, so experience and knowledge were at an abundance.

The theme of this blog is big city tactics in a small dept. We have a certain way of doing things on emergency responses that is very efficient and works quite well for us. I have friends on other larger departments ask me quite often...."how do you guys do it with only 4 guys?" That question actually made me sit down and think "how do we do it."

We have to be able to do the job of 15-20 people at a larger dept. with only 4 guys. Which means, we have to stretch lines, search the structure, get a water supply, fire attack, ventilate, etc. with limited manpower in a short amount of time.

I am very curious about how you do things at your department. Leave a comment or feel free to email me at thefirehousebench@Gmail.com.  Thanks and stay safe

The views expressed in this blog are of the writers opinion only and do not reflect the department I work for or any employee/member of those depts.

Welcome

Welcome to the Firehouse bench. This is my first (of hopefully many) posts about my view of the fire service as I see it. I am a 12 year veteran of the fire service and by no means do I think I know everything. I look forward to hearing feedback and differing opinions about how other firefighters see/do things.

A little about me..... I started my career in 2000 (16 years old) as a Volunteer at The Culloden Volunteer Fire Department in Culloden, WV. My family has been involved with Culloden VFD since it was founded in 1954 so it was in my blood. My father, and his 2 brothers, have all served as Fire Chief at CVFD so it was an easy decision to join when I reached the required age. In a very short amount of time I was taking a variety of classes and participating in all the training I could, It payed off when I reached the rank of Lt. at 21 years old.

In 2005, at 21 years of age, I was hired as a Career Firefighter at Dunbar Fire Department in Dunbar,WV. It was a dream come true to be able to get to do what I loved for a living. While the job remained the same, the culture and day to day practices were completely different. I had never been around people who didn't have the passion or the love of being a firefighter, but it didn't take long to realize there were people out there who actually just did this for a PAYCHECK. I was determined to never be one of those people.

In 2009 I became a Fire Instructor through the Kanawha County BOE (RESA III). This was about the time I started to see the "Big Picture." I felt like there were so many things that were not being taught to younger firefighters. I'm not talking about the basic core competencies, I'm talking about the little things that veteran firefighters teach new guys. I took the passion I have for this job and went into teaching full steam ahead!

In 2010, I was promoted to the rank of Captain on "A" shift, all of my hard work and dedication finally paid off. I was in a position now where I could lead and mold younger firefighters down the correct path. While this may seem easy, its sometimes difficult to do in certain environments. I have learned through multiple officer classes and working under multiple chiefs what kind of officer/leader what works and what doesn't. I do not claim to have all of the answers, but you can never go wrong if you treat people the way you would want to be treated.

In July 2011, at 27 years old, I was promoted to the rank of Chief at my Volunteer Department. No one could've ever prepared me for this role. I thought I was ready for responsibility, overall I think I was, but it was so much easier being a line officer and letting someone else deal with the problems. It was a work in progress, and still is, but I feel like I am adapting pretty well.

Before I make any command/officer decision, I ask myself....how would this make me feel if I were on the other end of this? If I wouldn't be very happy with it, I may rethink my decision, but at the same time I also know...I'll never make everyone happy all of the time. I just try to do the best I can without making ANY decision on sheer emotion, that seems to be when we (as officers) get ourselves into trouble.

I hope you got something out of this and feel free to email me or post a comment. I am open to ideas and constructive critisism. You guys stay safe out there!!